Name Above All Names

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Before I was regenerate, I was degenerate. I never looked into names and their meanings. I was looking with the eye but not through the eye, and hearing with the ear but not through the ear. My mind was disengaged and disinterested until God saved me through faith in Christ. Now names mean everything to me, especially the name of Jesus. What’s special about this name? In Philippians 2:10–11, Paul writes, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Every one ever born on this planet will give glory to God the Father by bowing the knee and saying that Jesus is Lord. Some do that willingly, others unwillingly. But they all will do it. Those who do it willingly are those to whom this truth has been revealed: “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). They can say with the Psalmist: “Come let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker, For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand” (Ps. 95:6–7).

We have seen that the second person of the Trinity has a sacred name, but so do the other members of the Trinity. Remember that Jesus prayed, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” The name of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, also is hallowed and set apart. But it is at the name of Jesus that the bowing will be done. Why? For this reason: Jesus is Lord. In fact, the name Jesus means “savior.” Christ means “anointed one.” This Savior who was anointed by God is the Redeemer; He is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. As Prophet, Priest, and King, He is the only Mediator between God and man. That’s why the Father has “highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name.”

Jesus accomplished salvation. “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross.” He was in the exact form of God, and “he made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.”

We learn about this sacrifice as well as all other names of Jesus in the Bible. But our Savior has a book, too. It’s the Lamb’s Book of Life. The names of the elect are written in it because we are a love gift from the Father to His Son our Lord. Our only response must then be: “Come let us worship and bow down.”